Other Games Making News Recently

With GDC and PAX these past couple of weeks have brought out quite a few updates for upcoming games that are intriguing to me.Â The two main ones are The Secret World and of course Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Iâ€™ll admit after these updates Iâ€™m not any closer to deciding if Iâ€™ll actually play these games but my level of intrigue has certainly grown.

SW:TOR seemed to have the majority of the buzz with the release of their Space Combat gameplay footage, Trailer, and flashpoint developer walkthrough.Â The gameplay footage is actually pretty encouraging as the game not only looks good but seems to be further along then what I had previously though.Â Couple that with the playable demos at PAX and SW:TOR might be closer to release, or at least some sort of public testing.Â On the downside, I must say Iâ€™m pretty disappointed by space combat as there really doesnâ€™t appear to be much depth to it at all, it is more of a short mini-game then a meaningful part of the game.Â Some may like the concept, but I would like something closer to what Star Wars Galaxies did in making space a viable alternative the the land based game.Â The other disappointment for me was the lack of any sort of date announced with regards to anything.Â I wasnâ€™t expecting a launch date, but I was hoping we might hear something regarding their testing plans.Â I will most likely end up playing SW:TOR as Iâ€™m a Star Wars fan but it isnâ€™t grabbing me quite like I had anticipated when it was announced.Â For me, SW:TOR feels more like KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic) which isnâ€™t necessarily a bad thing, but not the next generation Star Wars Galaxies I was hoping for.

As for the Secret World, this is another one that seems like it has been in the works for a very long time and we have very little information on when it will actually be released.Â This game promises to break the traditional MMO mold with no class definitions nor levels, instead allowing players to pick skills to use and become more proficient with them.Â I believe this is the same general idea Guild Wars 2 is implementing and Iâ€™m very curious to see how it is received by the player-base.Â The other part thatâ€™s grabbing me about the Secret World is that its set here on Earth in the modern day.Â This setting is also reminding me of the TV show Heroes with the look and feel as well as the general story and this could prove to be quite entertaining.Â While many have been turned off by Funcom based on Age of Conan, Iâ€™m cautiously optimistic that they can produce a higher quality product.

Both games are showing lots of promise but there just seem to be too many unknowns and their long buildup could cost them if they canâ€™t get out in front of some of the other big game titles planned for this year.

What are the odds that weâ€™ll see SW:TOR, the Secret World, and GW:2 all this year?Â I actually would be surprised if we see any of them this year, but hopefully my reverse psychology will work and weâ€™ll get more choices then we know what to do with!